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E351 series
The E351 series was a tilting Japanese Limited Express electric multiple unit. Built from 1993 to 1996 for JR East, the E351 series was mainly used on the Super Azusa Limited Express service, until they were phased out of those services entirely in March 2018. History The E351 series was designed in 1993 to replace aging 183 and 189 series cars in addition to speeding up the Azusa service on the Chūō Main Line. The first cars entered service on 23 December 1993. Five eight-car sets, numbered S1 to S5, and five four-car sets, numbered S21 to S25, were produced. Normally, the eight-car sets and four-car sets were coupled together to form a twelve-car consist. All sets were based at Matsumoto Depot. The entire E351 series fleet was replaced by newer E353 series sets introduced in 2017 on Super Azusa services on 17 March 2018 with the introduction of the revised timetable. The last sets in service, S3 and S23, performed a special final run service on 7 April 2018, after which, the E351 series were withdrawn from service. Despite its status of being synonymous with a Limited Express vehicle used on the Chūō Main Line, it was stated that it was probable that no E351 series cars will be preserved; a press release stated that the remaining sets would be scrapped after their withdrawal due to their obsolescence. This has held true, and as a result, no E351 series cars survive today; all sets were scrapped by early June 2018. The E351 series is notable as being the first train operated by the then-new JR group to use the "E" prefix before its designation signifying that it is used by JR East; this trend of adding the "E" prefix before the train's designation has since continued and is still being used today. Design The E351 series used a traditional design with a white body and lavender accents. The Azusa logo and wordmark could be seen splashed on the sides of the cars. Each set had both non-gangwayed and a gangwayed cab car which had vastly different appearances. Specifications Construction was of steel. Cars varied in length from 20.7 to 21.68 meters long. Traction motors were variable frequency drives manufactured by Hitachi, although the sets had been manufactured with two types of traction systems; pre-mass production cars had gate turn-off thyristor drives while mass-production cars had insulated gate bipolar transistor drives. The GTO inverters made a distinctive wailing noise as the train accelerated from idle, while the IGBT drives made a shrill sound that later stepped up in pitch. Both drives were manufactured by Hitachi, as mentioned above. The trains used a pendular tilting system which allowed them to maintain high speeds of the highly curved sections on the Chūō Main Line. A notable trait of the E351 series was their lack of physical end-of-train lights on non-gangwayed cab cars. Instead, two red ovals would be projected at the bottom of the LED screen which adorned the front of the non-gangwayed cab cars; gangwayed cab cars had physical end-of-train lights. This trait is shared with the 651 series' cab cars; the E351 series sets were the last sets to have this trait and this trait has not been repeated since. The E351 series sets were equipped with a musical horn that was a little bit out of the ordinary when it came to JR East's Limited Express fleet. The musical horn was usually blasted when a set was about to depart. This musical horn has only been used on two of JR East's Limited Express train sets, the other being the 255 series. References *Wikipedia.org Category:JR Group trains Category:Electric Trainsets Category:Tilting trainsets Category:Hitachi locomotives Category:Nippon Sharyo locomotives